On June 18, a Lao democracy activist, living in exile in France, was in hospital recovering from a knife attack. French police have since arrested four suspects, including the attacker himself, though the motive remains unclear.
On June 14, the activist, Joseph Akaravong, was in the center of the city of Pau when he was stabbed three times in broad daylight, including once in the throat.
One witness, told French news portal Sud Ouest, that they saw a couple who were calling for help as the man was bleeding.
“I went to the window and saw a couple who didn’t speak French, maybe Asian tourists, shouting ‘Help, help!’ The man had blood on his clothes and was holding his throat.”
According to the Manushya Foundation, a human rights group based in Thailand, Akaravong was in critical condition when he was rushed to the hospital. His condition has since been stabilized. Sharing a photo online of himself bandaged in his hospital room, he said his attacker “didn’t dare to fight me face to face with my bare hands.”
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A prominent critic of Laos’ communist government and its socio-economic policies, Akaravong fled the country in 2018 after speaking out against the collapse of the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydropower saddle dam — a disaster that killed dozens of villagers.
In March 2022, Akaravong was given political asylum in France, the Manushya Foundation said. He did visit Thailand where he was under the foundation’s protection.
Attacker arrested
While Akaravong was hospitalized, French authorities apprehended four suspects connected to the attack, according to French media. Among them was the attacker himself — a New Zealander, according to Radio New Zealand (RNZ).
Pau’s public prosecutor Rodolphe Jarry said the man was arrested on June 17 in the nearby city of Nîmes, located 480 kilometers from Pau.
RNZ reported that two of the other suspects were released from custody, while the remaining one was charged in relation to the attack. According to the AFP, Jarry said that one of the defendants had been put in pre-trial detention, while the other was under judicial control.
Investigating the attack, the public prosecutor’s office called it an “attempted assassination.” However, authorities did not confirm any political motivations behind the attack, France’s Le Monde reported.
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Activists in danger
The foundation said that, prior to the attack, Akaravong had been meeting with Lao activist Houayheuang Xayabouly, who was released from prison in Laos last September — a year after being arrested for criticizing the government’s slow response to a flood rescue effort.
The foundation also named the attack on Akaravong as an example of “transnational repression,” following recent disappearances and attacks on other Lao activists both in and out of Laos, especially in Thailand.
The United Nations’ (UN) Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances said in its latest yearly report that, since 1980, there have been more than 1,130 cases of disappearances within Southeast Asia — most of which remain unsolved, Voice of America (VOA) wrote.
The lack of action continues to be felt, as Sunai Phasuk — senior researcher for Human Rights Watch in Thailand — explained.
“It has created a sense of impunity that wrongdoers can continue their wrongdoings and get away with their crimes. And in parallel to that, the climate of fear… has been reinforc[ed],” he said.
In Aug. 2019, activist Od Sayavong and his housemate went missing in Bangkok, Thailand, but Thai authorities had pleaded ignorance in their case, stalling the investigation. Another Lao activist, Kitiyano Bounsuan, received UN refugee status, only to be shot to death in Thailand in May 2023.
After 12 years, the search for major rights advocate Sombath Somphone, who was last seen at a police checkpoint, is still ongoing.
